T-Shirts & More
Order men's and women's T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Aprons, Mugs, Caps, Tote Bags, Flasks, and more, all imprinted with the Pitmaster Club logo. There's even a spiral bound journal where you can make notes on your cooks.

Cool Embroidered Shirt
This beautifully embroidered shirt is the same one Meathead wears in public and on TV. It's wash and wear and doesn't need ironing (really!), but it is a soft cottonlike feel. Choice of four colors and both men's and women's.

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SPOTLIGHT

Some Of Our Favorite
Tools And Toys

Surely you know somebody who loves outdoor cooking who deserves a gift for the holidays, birthday, anniversary, or just for being wonderful. There he is, right in the mirror! Here are our selections of best ideas, all Platinum or Gold Medalists, listed by price.

If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the Slow 'N' Sear

Bring The Heat With Broil King Signet's Dual Tube Burners

The Broil King Signet 320 is a modestly priced, 3-burner gas grill that packs a lot of value and power under the hood. Broil King's proprietary, dual-tube burners get hot fast and are able to achieve high, searing temps that rival most comparatively priced gas grills. The quality cast aluminum housing carries a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

The Good-One Is A Superb Grill And A Superb Smoker All In One

The Good-One Open Range is a charcoal grill with an offset smoke chamber attached. It is dramatically different from a traditional offset smoker. The grill sits low in front and doubles as a firebox for the smoke chamber which is spliced on above and behind so it can work like a horizontal offset smoker only better. By placing the heat source behind and under the smokebox instead of off to the side, Open Range produces even temperature from left to right, something almost impossible to achieve with a standard barrel shaped offset.

Griddle And Deep Fryer All In One

The flat top does the burgers and the fryer does the fries. Use the griddle for bacon, eggs, and home fries. Or pancakes, fajitas, grilled cheese, you name it. Why stink up the house deep frying and spatter all over? Do your fried chicken and calamari outside. Blackstone's Rangetop Combo With Deep Fryer does it all. Plus it has a built in cutting board, garbage bag holder, and paper towel holder. An additional work table on the left side provides plenty of counter space.

The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy

The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers in the hardware stores because temperature control is so much easier. Best of all, it is only 9 delivered to your door!

The Swiss Army Knife Of Thermometers

The smart folks at ThermoWorks have finally done it: The Swiss Army Knife of thermometers, two in one. Start with the industry standard food thermometer, the Thermapen MK4, (Platinum Medal winner) truly instant (2 to 3 seconds) precise (+ or – 0.7°F). Then they built in an infrared thermometer ideal for measuring the temps of pizza stones, griddles, and frying pans (also great for finding leaks around doors and windows in your house).

The Cool Kettle With The Hinged Hood We Always Wanted

Their NK22CK-C Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It's hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the NK22CK-C a viable alternative.

G&F Suede Welder's Gloves

Heat Resistant Gloves With Extra Long Sleeves Hold The Hot Stuff

If you're using oven mitts at the grill, it's time to trade up. Say hello to these suede welder's gloves. They're heat resistant enough to handle hot grill grates, and flexible enough to handle tongs. The extra long sleeves even let you reach deep into the firebox to move hot logs without getting burned. Our Fave.

GrillGrates Take Gas Grills To The Infrared Zone

GrillGrates(TM) amplify heat, prevent flareups, make flipping foods easier, keep small foods from committing suicide, kill hotspots, are easier to clean, flip over to make a fine griddle, and can be easily removed and moved from one grill to another. You can even throw wood chips, pellets, or sawdust between the rails and deliver a quick burst of smoke to whatever is above. Every gas grill needs them.

Our Favorite Backyard Smoker

The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. The quality of meat from this machine is astonishing. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat controlled oven. It is our favorite smoker, period.

Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker

The First Propane Smoker With A Thermostat Makes This Baby Foolproof

Set ThermoTemp's dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin'.

Professional Steakhouse Knife Set

Our founder, Meathead, wanted the same steak knives used by steakhouses such as Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's, Kobe Club, Palm, and many others. So he located the manufacturer and had them stamp our name on some. They boast pointed, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, half-tang blades with excellent cutting edge ability. The beefy hardwood handle provides a comfortable grip secured by three hefty rivets. He has machine washed his more than 100 times. They have never rusted and they stay shiny without polishing. Please note that we do not make, sell, or distribute these knives, they just engrave them with our name.

Is This Superb Charcoal Grill A Kamado Killer?

The PK-360, with 360 square inches of cooking space, this rust free, cast aluminum charcoal grill is durable and easy to use. Four-way venting means it's easy to set up for two zone cooking with more control than single vent Kamado grills. It is much easier to set up for 2-zone cooking than any round kamado. Beautifully designed and completely portable. Meathead says it is his preferrred grill.

Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker

Green Mountain's portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it's also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.

My Technique and Recipe For The Best Boiled Peanuts

June 21st, 2017, 07:32 PM

My wife, Kate, and I have developed a recipe for the liquid peanuts are boiled in, and techniques for boiling them that we think not only make them the best boiled peanuts, but also a very tasty snack. We have given our boiled peanuts to a number of people who range from those who say they dislike boiled peanuts to those who say they are connoisseurs of boiled peanuts and are skeptical that anyone can beat the taste of their own boiled peanuts. The ones who disliked boiled peanuts said they loved ours, and that they were also one of the best snacks they’d ever had. The connoisseurs said our boiled peanuts were the best they had tasted. Following are our recipe and techniques.

Green and Dried Raw Peanuts

There are two types of peanuts that can be boiled: raw green and raw dried. Raw green peanuts are fresh harvested with 35 – 50% moisture content. They should be stored refrigerated, and boiled in less than 10 days. Raw dried peanuts have been dried to 10% moisture content. They usually cost less than raw green peanuts, and can be stored at room temperature for many months.

Techniques and Recipe

Preparation
The differences between boiling green and raw dried peanuts is cooking time, cooking technique, and salting. Green peanuts cook in less time because their shells are softer than dried peanuts. They also do not require as much salt as dried peanuts. Purchase smoked turkey necks, wings, or legs, or smoked hog jowls to cook with the peanuts to add a great smoky flavor. The pot should be large enough to accommodate the meat and peanuts, and when water is added, provide at least two inches of space between the top of the floating peanuts and the top of the pot, and at least three inches of space between the bottom of the floating peanuts and the bottom of the pot. It should have a lid, and a glass one is ideal because you can see the boiling status of the water without removing the pot lid.

Cooking
Heat the water to a rolling boil. Check under the sections about raw dried peanuts and raw green peanuts to find out when to add the smoked meat and salt the water. When salting, it’s best to add it to boiling water because the boiling water melts the salt, which enables it to thoroughly mix into the water. As long as the water is boiling the peanuts will absorb no salt or flavor, but this salting will begin to salt the shells, increasing the efficiency of salting the peanuts later. Water should be added as hot tap water to reduce the time before the water returns to a boil. After adding the hot tap water, turn up the heat until the peanuts are at a rolling boil, then reduce the heat until they are barely boiling. The total time the peanuts have been cooking will be more than the time they have been boiling because of boiling time lost when hot water is added. Peanuts are fully cooked when they are soft with no crunchiness, similar in texture to cooked field peas.

Flavoring
Once they are cooked, bring them to a rolling boil and add ample salt, stirring the salt into the boiling water. Using a large spoon, stir the peanuts and taste the salted water. It should be slightly too salty for your taste for green peanuts and moderately too salty for your taste for dried peanuts. The water is salted this way because the peanuts will not absorb all of the salt in the water. If the saltiness is not right, turn up the heat to get the water boiling and continue salting, stirring, and tasting until it is the correct saltiness. If you get it too salty, add fresh hot water to reduce the saltiness. Getting the peanuts salted to your taste requires trial and error because the water has to be saltier than your taste because the peanuts absorb varying amounts of salt from the water they sit in. And you will not know how the flavored peanuts taste until the flavoring process is completed. So you may not get them just right on this first batch. Once the water is salted, turn the heat off, keep the lid on the pot, and let the peanuts soak in the salted, flavored cooking water until most of them sink, which takes about two hours, and indicates they have filled with liquid. If the peanuts still have not sunk after two hours, bring them to a boil, turn off the heat, and let them continue soaking until most of them sink. Taste the peanuts. They should have absorbed water, salt and flavor. If they are still not suitable to your taste, bring them to a rolling boil, add more salt, stir it into the water, then turn off the heat and let them sit another 30 minutes to an hour. Repeat this process of heating the water to a boil, salting it, then turning the heat off and soaking the peanuts for 30 minutes to an hour until they suit your taste. Then take them up, drain them in a colander and serve them.

Storing
Don’t leave un-refrigerated for more than two hours. They are good for about 5 days if kept refrigerated. They can also be frozen and will taste as good as fresh boiled for up to a year after freezing. When done boiling and soaking, remove them from the water, pour them out on a tray, and let them cool for about an hour. Freeze them in a shrink-wrapped package. When heating frozen peanuts, do not put the exposed peanuts in boiling water because the salt will leach out of them. Fill a pot with room temperature water out of the tap and put the shrink wrapped package of peanuts in the pot of water. When it starts to boil, turn the package of peanuts over. After boiling them for about 15 minutes in the bag they were frozen in, turn off the heat, turn the bag over, and let them sit for about 10 minutes. Pour up and enjoy.

Raw Dried Peanuts

Raw dried peanuts are typically sold in plastic bags on the shelf (un-refrigerated) at the supermarket and should be available year around. Be careful not to buy roasted or salted peanuts. Before cooking, pour the peanuts out onto a large tray and discard the very small or broken ones.

Heat the water to a rapid boil, then turn the heat down until the water boils slowly. Cook for 3.5 hours of boiling time, adding enough hot tap water to keep the peanuts covered. After 3.5 hours of boiling time, pour off the water using a colander, and transfer the peanuts to a pot of fresh boiling water that contains the smoked meat. Pouring off this first water eliminates impurities from the dried shells that will give the peanuts an off-flavor. Stir salt into the rapidly boiling water the peanuts and smoked meat are in to a slightly salty taste. After 5 total hours boiling time, test a few peanuts to see if they are ready. If not, continue boiling until they are. Then proceed with the flavoring step described previously.

In my opinion, dried peanuts boiled this way taste better than boiled green peanuts. That’s because the drying process concentrates the flavors and sugars in the peanut. I think that’s why raw dried peanuts taste sweeter than raw green peanuts.

Raw Green Peanuts

Green peanuts are typically sold refrigerated in the produce section of most supermarkets and are only seasonally available. While the season for the southeastern U.S. is summer and early fall, peanuts from other countries often increase the availability of green peanuts to other months of the year. Pour the peanuts out onto a large tray and discard the small, broken or immature ones. Put the smoked turkey or pork in the pot first, followed by the peanuts and the hot tap water.

Heat the water to a rapid boil, then add salt and stir it into the boiling water. Salt the water to a taste a little less salty than you want the peanuts to be. Turn the heat down until the water boils slowly. While the peanuts are boiling, check the water level every 30 minutes, and add hot water as it is needed. After an hour-and-a-half of boiling time taste the peanuts to see if they are done. If not done, boil for 30 more minutes and taste them again. They shouldn’t take more than 2 ½ hours. Then proceed with the flavoring step described previously.

I gotta tell ya, circa 1993, headed to the Angola State Prison Rodeo, cousin's hubby stopped us at a roadside vendor to purchase boiled peanuts. I never had 'em, had a couple, swore I'd never have 'em again.....the texture is what killed me.

I have not tried to can boiled peanuts but I think you can. Years ago you could buy canned boiled peanuts in the supermarket. The liquid inside the peanuts will be the same saltiness as the liquid they were soaked in, so you probably need to reduce the salt in the liquid to be the same as you want the peanuts to be. But I don't think that canned boiled peanuts will taste nearly as good as frozen ones prepared the way I describe in the document I wrote.

I like your technique, RAmorris. You give great details on how to process peanuts for boiling. I bet that not many folks outside of peanut growing country have access to green raw peanuts. Glad to hear that you prefer the dried raw to green raw. I've never dumped first boil water, but I sure have had some funky flavored boiled peanuts before! I will do that for sure.

No way am I going to put commercial smoked meat in to cook with peanuts to add smoked flavor though. I do typically use a spicy BBQ rub for boiling peanuts. Usually Buttrub because it has no sugar. Flavor isn't a problem, I can see that floating gunk from smoked meats could be. I do appreciate the freezing part! I'm the only one that will eat boiled peanuts in my family, so it's good to know that a batch will hold that way. Thanks!

My dad used to pick up boiled peanuts at the levee when we were waiting for the ferry to cross the Mississippi river in south La. I remember eating them and they were good. Never tried to make them. My day used to grow peanuts. We used to "parch" the in the oven...

Adding the smoked meat is what really sets these boiled peanuts apart from other boiled peanuts. I use smoked turkey necks or wings that we purchase at Publix supermarket and have never had a problem with floating gunk from boiling the smoked meat. But it is typically boiled during the flavoring process for only about 2 hours. There is an independent grocery store where I buy brisket and baby back ribs that sells about 400 pounds of boiled peanuts a week. I took him some of my boiled peanuts not cooked in turkey necks and he said they were about the same as those provided by his supplier. The next day, I took him peanuts boiled with the smoked turkey necks, and he said they were by far the best he'd ever had. He said if I could supply 400 or more pounds a week, he would end his agreement with his current supplier and switch to me. He thought that as good as mine tasted, within a few weeks his sales would greatly increase. Kate and I were going to start a boiled peanut business based on this grocery store owners interest, but with my inoperable bad back, we decided not to. If we had done this commercially, we would have boiled the smoked turkey to create a broth to boil the peanuts in, rather put the meat in with the boiled peanuts.

A little saying of mine for many years now. One day I will be selling boiled peanuts on the side of the road.

LOVE me some boiled peanuts. Nice writeup there. I make a lot of em, usually once a week. For the last year or so I have been using my instant pot (pressure pot). I use bacon grease for my flavoring along with a few other things. Dang dang good.

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About this website. AmazingRibs.com is all about the science of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking, with great BBQ recipes, tips on technique, and unbiased equipment reviews. Learn how to set up your grills and smokers properly, the thermodynamics of what happens when heat hits meat, as well as hundreds of excellent tested recipes including all the classics: Baby back ribs, spareribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, burgers, chicken, smoked turkey, lamb, steaks, barbecue sauces, spice rubs, and side dishes, with the world's best buying guide to barbecue smokers, grills, accessories, and thermometers, edited by Meathead.

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